StockMarketEye 2.9.4

Computerized Investing reviewed StockMarketEye 2.4.2 in September 2010, but we feel the program is good enough and has been updated enough to warrant a new review.

StockMarketEye is a program that allows users to track and monitor all of their investments in one convenient place. Users can create an unlimited number of portfolios and watchlists for which the program provides a variety of data, whether it be fundamental data, such as P/E ratio and dividend yield, or performance data, such as CAGR (compound annual growth rate) and IRR (internal rate of return). Portfolios can mimic an actual portfolio or act as a virtual portfolio. Watchlists allow users to follow securities and indexes from most major world exchanges.

The program also provides built-in stock charts for both individual stocks and custom portfolios. The charts are interactive in that users can add indicators or compare their portfolio against an index. There is even a built-in alerts system that allows users to set alerts for their stocks. These alerts can be forwarded to a user’s iPhone via the $1.99 StockMarketEye iPhone app available in the iTunes App Store, which makes it a useful product for investors on the go.

To create a portfolio in StockMarketEye, hold Ctrl and press N or select Portfolio on the main toolbar and then select New Portfolio. The popup Portfolio Settings window allows users to change the portfolio’s name, add a description, change the streaming quote data interval, change the portfolio’s currency, and more. To add a stock to a portfolio, first select the portfolio in the column on the left and then select Buy Stock from the toolbar located directly above the portfolio spreadsheet. Here, users can enter the stock’s ticker symbol, adjust the buy or short-sell date, enter the number of shares purchased and the purchase price, and account for any transaction costs.

The Buy Price area offers a useful feature, especially to users creating a watchlist or virtual portfolio that started in the past: It can automatically retrieve a stock’s quote on the selected buy date. To do this, first select the date that the stock was added in Date Added, and then select “Use current market price.” Users do not have to fish for the market price of each stock on a specific date: The program does it for them.

By default, the program displays a few essential data columns, such as Symbol, Last, Change and Percent. However, users can add columns, such as Portfolio %, P/E, PEG (price-earnings-to-growth ratio), and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), by going to File > Preferences > Columns. For example, if a user wanted to see how much of their portfolio’s value was represented by one stock, he or she would select “Prices” in the Portfolio Columns window, select “Portfolio %” from the list on the left, select the right arrow, then select “OK.” The user’s portfolios will now display the Portfolio % column and the percent value of each stock compared to the portfolio. For instance, Apple comprises 58.29% of this sample portfolio. This means that a change in Apple’s value will drastically affect the value of the portfolio as a whole, which is one way to notice that this portfolio is not diversified.

StockMarketEye is a neat program with many useful features, so it is definitely worth a try. Because most of StockMarketEye’s features are already offered by discount brokers, users might want to try the fully featured, free 30-day trail before buying the program for $39.95. Arguable, this makes the program most useful to those who want virtual portfolios or watchlists, which can be exceptionally valuable features, even for the experienced investor.